In
1929, Radio Corporation of America (RCA) purchased the Victor Talking Machine
Company, then the world's largest manufacturer of phonographs (including
the famous "Victrola") and phonograph records (in British English, "gramophone
records"). The company then became RCA-Victor. With Victor, RCA acquired
New World rights to the famous Nipper trademark. In
1949, when RCA first introduced the 45 rpm record, they issued them on
different colors of vinyl to indicate the type of music the record was.
While the color coding didn't catch on, the 45's certainly did.Release
announcement from 1956.